Bootstrap

Released: Improved security and performance

Based once again on some great customer feedback, today we released a number of enhancements to improve the Bootstrap experience.

The biggest change was the roll out of SSL, which stands for Secure Socket Layer. This technology encrypts the information that is passed back and forth between your browser and Bootstrap’s servers (including the business income and expenses you enter.) It’s an added security feature that is commonly found on e-commerce sites (where credit card numbers tend to get entered.) The two things that you can see to know it’s working are a URL that starts with “https” and a closed lock icon in your browser’s status bar.

The other improvements we made were to improve the speed of the site. We have always said having too many users sign up too quickly is a nice problem to have, but it is a problem nonetheless. So, we added a bunch of memory, doubled the number of processors (CPUs), and optimized the database. And for those of you who like to know more of the technical details, we also doubled the number of Mongrel instances:-)

Thanks again for all the feedback. Please keep it coming!

Track your FreshBooks invoices in Bootstrap

Since launching a few months ago, customers have been asking for the ability to track invoices in addition to payments received. In keeping with our goal to be the simplest and most open accounting and bookkeeping software for small businesses, today we released an easy-to-use integration with FreshBooks’ online invoicing application.

By simply entering two pieces of information about your FreshBooks account, you will enable Bootstrap to regularly download all of your invoices, payments and clients directly from FreshBooks. Now, you can not only track the money that you’ve been paid, but also keep tabs on money you’ve earned but haven’t yet received.

Just go to the settings tab and click on the FreshBooks menu item. Once you check the box to enable FreshBooks invoicing, all you need to do is enter your FreshBooks login ID and API token (just follow the on-screen help to learn where to find this.) That’s all there is to it.

By popular demand - export your individual transactions

One of the most common questions we’ve received in our first couple of months in the market has been whether customers can export their information if they decide they don’t like the experience (or if we start charging too much money.) When we launched, we supported the ability to export your income and expense report. However, users wanted the ability to export their individual transactions. Well, we promised we would add that functionality - and so we have. Starting today, users can now export all of their individual income and expense transactions.

To get your individual income and expense transactions out of Bootstrap, simply go to the “Reports” tab where, at the bottom of the detailed income and expense report, you’ll see a link to “Export Transactions.” Click on that link to get a comma-separated list (which imports nicely into Excel and many other applications) of all of your transactions for that time period. Simply choose a different time period to get more or fewer transactions.

Unlike a lot of accounting applications on the market, we will not hold your data hostage. It’s your information, you should be free to do with it as you wish. Now you can:-)